Vittorio De Sica was an Italian film director and actor best known for neorealism in film. He was born in Sora, Italy on July, 2, 1901 (some articles say 1902) and died on November 14, 1974 in Paris, France. He was born into an impoverished family and his first job was as an office clerk at a young age to help support his family. He became fascinated by acting and appeared in his first film in 1918 at the age of sixteen. He joined a well-known Italian troupe in 1923; a biography in the New York Times says, “…and by the end of the decade his dashing good looks had made him one of the Italian theater's most prominent matinee idols.” He then achieved even greater acclaim after his first sound movie, appearing in light romantic comedies until he started directing in 1939. The neorealism movement is described as beginning in Italy during World War II as a response to the political upheaval and dire economic conditions affecting the country. In De Sica’s first neorealist movie, I bambini ci guardano (The Children Are Watching Us), he tells the heartbreaking story from a five-year-old’s perspective of family disintegration due to fascism and war. The Times biography states, “…De Sica employed non-professional actors and filmed not in studios but on the streets of Rome, all to flesh out the working-class drama…” He did not make another film until the war was over. He then made several highly regarded neorealist films: Sciuscia (Shoeshine), released in 1946, is the story of two poor shoeshine boys who find happiness and despair in a figure of a horse; Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves), probably De Sica’s best known film, described in the Harvard Film Archive “…Bicycle Thieves uses nonprofessional actors and incredible location shooting on the streets of a war-ravaged Rome to tell the gripping story of a downtrodden man whose quest to reclaim a stolen bicycle sends him on a spellbinding tour through the city’s working class neighborhoods with his young yet wise son. A heartbreaking work of redemption and hope in the face of overwhelming despair, Bicycle Thieves is a richly insightful examination of the human condition.” and Umberto D., which differs from his other films in that it is the story of an elderly man in despair, rather than children.
Though all his films from this period received high critical acclaim, they didn’t always achieve popular acceptance. De Sica began making more commercial films in the early 1950’s. As he began his career as an actor in light comedies, he also directed several of them. He began working in Hollywood in 1953 and used more established actors in his films, rather than unknowns. One of his favorites was Sophia Loren, who gained international fame from appearing in his films. A film with Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, won an Oscar for best foreign film in 1963. A Britannica article says, “By this point in his career, De Sica had reached the pinnacle of his commercial success and was known as an “international” director capable of working in both Hollywood and Rome.” He continued to act in films, including an Oscar-nominated role in A Farewell to Arms in 1957 and a performance as a spy in a film by fellow countryman Roberto Rossellini.
Through the rest of the sixties, Turner Classic Movies website claims that, “After a period of decline in which he came to be perceived as a slick, rather tasteless master of burlesque, De Sica resurfaced with The Garden of the Finzi-Continis." De Sica returned to his neorealism roots with this wrenching story of a wealthy Jewish family in Italy in denial of the coming Holocaust and combines it with a frustrated love affair. Released in 1970, it also won the Academy Award for best foreign film.
De Sica continued to work until nearly the end of his life, releasing his last film in 1974, The Voyage, and starring his favorite actress, Sophia Loren. There are many different opinions about De Sica’s work, particularly his later films, which some say were not nearly as good as his neorealism films from the 40’s and 50’s. However, there is no doubt that he was a very influential film maker and many of his movies are and will remain classics of the genre.
Selected Filmography
The Children Are Watching Us (1944)
Shoeshine (1946)
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Umberto D. (1952)
Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953)
The Gold of Naples (1954)
Two Women (1960)
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963)
Marriage Italian Style (1964)
After the Fox (1966)
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)
http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2010aprjun/de_sica.html
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Vittorio-De-Sica
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/after_the_fox/reviews/?type=user
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-essentials-the-10-best-vittorio-de-sica-films-20150923
http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/87213/Vittorio-De-Sica/biography
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